Album Reviews

Recorded June and December of 1956 in New York City, this match-up features a superb big band arranged by the then young Quincy Jones and the extraordinarily gifted Dinah Washington who belts them out here with breathtaking conviction.

Washington could sing jazz, blues and R&B with equal power and dexterity. She had it all: a big, powerful voice, crystalline enunciation, an exquisite sense of timing and a totally unique, easily identifiable style.

She was much imitated (listen to Nancy Wilson for instance, and I don’t mean the Heart one) and influenced a generation or three after her death at the age of 39 in 1963. She was but 32 when this was recorded, though her tonal and interpretive skills make her sound far older and more mature.

Jones’s arrangements are mostly brash, horn driven affairs that could stop and a dime to highlight a soft-spoken guitar. On the ballads he combines brass and woodwinds to produce a rich, burnished backing.

The players were top New York studio guys, some of whom ended up in the Tonight Show band, including Clark Terry and Doc Severinsen. Other players here include trombonist Urbie Green (who was on many an Enoch Light and the Light Brigade Command Records audio fest LP), and ubiquitous bassist Milt Hinton.

Washington (real name Ruth Lee Jones) covers a set of standards like “Makin’ Whoopee, “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” and “Caravan,” imparting her own brash, unique style onto each one. Coupled with Jones’s tastefully bombastic arrangements, the result is an album of exciting, dazzling fireworks.

The mono recording is definitely old school “high fidelity,” with a touch of brightness and an overlay of reverb on Washington’s massive, yet perky voice. There’s great transparency and a tinge of boxiness but instrumental timbres are, for the most part, believable, especially the horns.

Washington’s biggest “pop” breakthrough was the moody “What a Difference a Day Makes,” which cut through 1959’s rock clutter to reach #8 on the pop charts.

Washington died of an accidental overdose of prescription pills but thanks to swell reissues like this, she lives on to seduce and thrill future generations of music lovers. A CD reissue includes many bonus tracks but the original is an exquisite set piece and reminder of a time now long gone, when elegant and sophisticated music was in the mainstream.